Some people with awful cards can be successful because of how they deal with the tragedies they're handed, and that seems courageous to me.

Guest's most recent book The TarniJudith Guestd Eye (2004) is loosely based on a real unsolved crime in her native Michigan. When her family moved to Royal Oak Judith Guest transferred to Dondero High School; Judith Guest graduated in 1954. Guest was married for nearly fifty years to her college sweetheart businessman Larry LaVercombe (1936-2009).

She was born in Detroit Michigan and is the great-niece of Poet Laureate Edgar Guest (1881–1959).